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The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu

Thursday 10 January 2013, 17:30

Film

"After all, a dictator is simply an artist who is able to fully put into practice his egotism. It is a mere question of aesthetic level, whether he turns out to be Baudelaire or Bolintineanu, Louis XVI or Nicolae Ceausescu." Andrei Ujica

Drawing on archival and TV footage shot between 1967 and 1989 to make the third part of his trilogy of films on the end of communism, Andrei Ujica (co-director with Harun Farocki of Videogrammes of a Revolution) transforms a historical chronicle into a spellbinding, sweeping epic.

During the summary trial that he and his wife were submitted to, Nicolae Ceau?escu reviews his long reign in power: 1965-1989. It is an historical tableau that in its scope resembles American film frescos such as those dedicated to the Vietnam War. There are no titles, captions or voiceover; instead Ujica's primary authorial intervention consists of precise selection, ingenious editing and a cleverly subtle soundtrack construction. Nearly all the images are essentially staged; they originate from the images Ceausescu ordered photographed in the performance of his own public image.